Loosely flowing

Her hair bound in tortoise or else loosley flowing


(Lo each is a beautiful show)


More blacker than jet the fine ringlets seem glowing


Nay they rival the Micaelmas sloe.


Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 


#photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks


An early photo (1860) by #ClementinaLadyHawarden of one of her daughters

 

Waking fond desire

Now melancholy autumn comes anew

With showery clouds and fields of wheat tanned brown

Along the meadow banks I peace pursue

And see the wild flowers gleaming up and down

Like sun and light; the ragwort's golden crown

Mirrors like sunshine when sunbeams retire

And silver yarrow: there's the little town

And o'er the meadows gleams that slender spire

Reminding me of one, and waking fond desire

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Artist print by #CarryAkroyd

Like lilies on the lake

Thy face is sweet, thy cares are young

Thy voice is womans lovely tongue

Thy smiles are such as all delight

Thy thoughts are lilys clothed in light

Thy swan like neck, thy swelling breast

Like lilies on the lake at rest

Thou art of all the fairest flower

That blooms amid this earthly bower

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

The changing face of heaven

Tis lovley now to turn ones eye  

The changing face of heaven to mind 

 How thin spun clouds glide swiftly bye 

 Wi lurking storms slow movd behind 

 Now suns are clear now clouds prevade 

 Each moment changd & changd again

& first a light & then a shade 

 Swift glooms & brightens oer the plain

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

The rosy day

The rosy day was sweet and young,

The clod-brown lark that hail'd the morn
Had just her summer anthem sung,
And trembling dropped in the corn;
The dew-rais'd flower was perk and proud,
The butterfly around it play'd;
The sky's blue clear, save woolly cloud
That pass'd the sun without a shade.

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Twittering swallows

By twittering swallows we percieve

That summers on the point to leave

Who skim the pond & rippling spring

Were once they dipt each sooty wing

& greensward lanes from morn till night

Were once they weeld their circling flight

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

So is the life of man

Both milkmaids shouts and herdsmans call
Have vanish'd with the green
The kingcups yellow shades and all
Shall never more be seen

As are the changes of the green
So is the life of man

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Artist Print by my friend #CarryAkroyd

 

2023 Chapbooks

I've been planning for several years, to introduce the general reader to a wider range of 'Clare-related' subjects, each book concentrating on just one topic.  In keeping with their history my Arbour Editions Chapbooks are very inexpensive, but in a break with tradition the books are high quality productions with gloss covers.  

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Photo of my latest three chapbooks from 2023, more details on arboureditions1.blogspot.com 

The prowling fox

Housewives discoursing 'bout their hens and cocks,
Spinning long stories, wearing half the day;
Sad deeds bewailing of the prowling fox;
How in the roost the thief had knav'd his way,
And made their market-profits all a prey.

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Painting by my friend #CarryAkroyd

Song sweet warbling thrush

Thrice Welcome to thy song sweet warbling thrush

May you be happy as you still have been
The present sunshine warms your covert bush
The future clouds you know not what they mean
Vain foolish thought & why should ye be sad
Why be like me with ills to come oprest
To pass the present bliss that may be had
& wait on sorrow as a welcome guest

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Photo by my friend #JohnAbbott

Among the sheaves

The fields now claim them where a motley crew
Of old and young their daily tasks pursue
The barleys beard is grey and wheat is brown
And wakens toil betimes to leave the town
The reapers leave their beds before the sun
And gleaners follow in the toils begun
To pick the littered ear the reaper leaves
And glean in open fields among the sheaves

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Dizzy nauntling high and proud

 Where the steeples taper stretch

Tries the eye its length to reach

Dizzy nauntling high & proud

Top stone loosing in a cloud

Where the cross to time resignd

Creaking harshly in the wind

Crowning high the rifted dome

Points the pilgrims wisht for home

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Photo: Peterborough Cathedral, this inspiration for Clare’s lines.

Down the cool lanes

Lonely oer the heaths to ramble 

Mary thou my partner be 

 Down the cool lanes lind wi bramble 

 Mary wind the brook wi me 

 Tho before in glooms surrounded 

 When encircld in thy arms 

 Beating heart wi troubles wounded 

 Throbs to rest on Marys charms

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

To kiss the rivers lesser weeds

The bulrush bows in graceful art 

To kiss the rivers lesser weeds

& flags in many a merry start 

Rustling whisper to the reeds

Shall  things inanimate agree 

To love unmoving thee & me

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Photo from my friend #JohnAbbott 

Winding ways

Theres somthing rich & joyful to the mind 

To view through close & field those crooked shreds 

Of footpaths that most picturesqly wind 

From  town to town or some tree hidden sheds 

Where lonely cottager lifes peace enjoys 

Far far from strife & all its troubled noise 

The pent up artizan by pleasure led 

Along their winding ways right glad employs

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Natures happiest hand

As rugged & as barren as it seems 

This heath too has its beauties 

So sweetly wild & perminant of hue 

& heaths low creeping in their pinky bloom 

& here beside the dead bents rustling tuft 

A blossom hides its beauties from the world 

& such a one as natures happiest hand

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

A scarlet host display

The garish Summer comes with many tribes 

Of gay & gaudy flowers in bright array

But the hot sun the cloudy morning bribes

& dries all moisture with his scorching ray

Corn-poppies oft a scarlet host display

The oak woods green like rocky masses hing 

On wooded hills the willows waving grey

Hang mournful in the stream birds cease to sing

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Cool thy waters run

Sweet fountain neeth thy pendant boughs 

 May cool thy waters run 

While flocks of sheep & herds of cows 

 Seek shelter from the sun 

Unhead[ed] be thy willow ranks 

 Thy waters pure & clear 

For her I meet upon thy banks 

 Thou fountain thou art dear

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

The plash of quiet kine

Ive often gazed with pleasure by the edge

Of the old meadow lake floodwashed and crookd 

The water-rat slow rustling in the sedge

The fish-ring wavering in the clear Ive looked

In rapture on the mellow summer shine

Of the still water gleaming in the sun

Just  wrinkled by the plash of quiet kine

Who  knee-deep in the flags would drink— & done

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Photo by my friend #JohnAbbott yesterday.

Love makes the posies

Wild flowers and wild roses

'‘Tis love makes the posies
To paint Summer ballads of meadow & glen
Floods cantdrown it nor turn it
Even flames cannot burn it
Let it bloom till we walk the green meadows again

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

A coy lover

The Moth a coy lover now ventures to creep

Out at night to steal kisses from flowers when asleep

But the Butterflye bold as the Bee for a plot

Kisses the flowers all the day whether willing or not

Now no longer able his sports to pursue

He lay neath a leaf to get out of the dew

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Along the baulk

How fond the rustics ear at leisure dwells

On the soft soundings of his village bells

As on a sunday morning at his ease

He takes his rambles just as fancys please

Down narrow baulks that interscet the fields

Hid in profusions that its produce yields

Long twining peas in faintly misted greens

& winged leaf multitudes of crowding beans

& flighty oatlands of a lighter hue

& speary barley bowing down with dew

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Homeward bends his weary way

The weary thresher leaves his barn
And emptys from his shoes the corn
That gatherd in them thro the day
And homward bends his weary way
The gardener he is sprinkling showers
From watering pans on drooping flowers
And set away his hoe and spade
While goody neath the cottage shade
Sits wi a baskett tween her knees
Ready for supper shelling peas

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Painting by #CarryAkroyd 

Their sweets are sweet to them alone

With Genius blest but like to thee

So With Genius blest but like to thee

With Genius blest but like to thee

So humble lowly mean & plain

No one will notice them nor me

So like to thee they live unknown

Wild weeds obscure & like to thee

Their sweets are sweet to them alone

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings. 

#Photography  #poetry  #environment  #painting  #bookbinding  #chapbooks

Painting by my friend #CarryAkroyd